Still whales in the Bay....September and October are great for whale watching

Hello all, just wanted to send out a short message to let you all know we are still seeing whales...some people worry that whale watching isn't great in the fall but September and October are usually great for whale watching in the Bay of Fundy.

We have been seeing fin whales on all of our departures....yesterday and today we had some great looks at a lunge feeding fin whale in Head Harbour Passage. This morning they were able to get offshore and they found 1 humpback, Lyrids, off South Wolf but this young whale was being very difficult to watch so they headed back inshore with the fin whales.

The weather forecast looks great right now for the coming weekend so if you are in St. Andrews join us on the Bay of Fundy :)

Cheers,
Danielle

Welcome Back Lyrids....where have you been for the past 3 weeks??

Hello all, what a great day we had on the Bay. On both trips we spent some great time with fin whales off Bliss and South Wolf as well as time with Lyrids, a juvenile humpback we saw for the first time last season. We have not seen Lyrids since August 23rd....wonder where this young one has been??

Here are 2 photos I took today of Lyrids, note that the name comes from the white streaks on the tail....resembles the Lyrids meteor shower.


We also saw this gorgeous adult northern gannet on our morning trip off South Wolf and I just had to take a picture.


Thanks so much for checking in today....I am still waiting to hear on an ID of the new humpback whale we had yesterday.

Cheers,
Danielle

Rough weather & a missed right whale trip but still a great day with some special passengers

Good evening everyone,

Well, this morning was our scheduled North Atlantic right whale trip and the weather forecast has been all over the map for the past few days but we thought we would give it a try....head out towards the Wolves and see what the conditions were like. And.....it was rough....and I want to thank all of our hearty passengers for holding on and being safe out there. The weather was just too rough to go any further....so we would not be able to make it out into right whale area. Our Scout Boat was out as well and we did find 2 humpback whales. Neither was being overly easy to watch...one was doing 15 minute dives and not raising it's tail and the other was doing some long dives and making some big moves but I managed to get a shot of the dorsal fin and the flukes. We do not recognize this whale and I have the images into the Center for Coastal Studies and hopefully they will be able to get back to me with an ID.


I do want to thank everyone who joined us this morning, all of us at Quoddy Link really hope you enjoyed yourself. John decided to adjust the ticket price of the trip and refunded all of the passengers 50% because of the weather and because we were only able to get to the Bank.

Thanks so much for checking in today, I will post any info on this new little humpback when I hear from PCCS.

Cheers,
Danielle

A little wind and a little flipper slapping

Hey everyone,

Today was one of those days that you might as well have not even checked the weather forecast because it was not accurate in anyway but that is where some flexibility comes into play. We spent our morning trip off Bliss Island with 3 fin whales and we got some great looks. Our 2pm departure started out in the same way....we has atleast 5 fin whales in the area and we got some incredible looks and the wind was diminishing so John decided to run us offshore in search of humpback whales. We made out way out past South Wolf and towards the Bank and as soon as we slowed down to give the area a good look John picked up a low and bushy blow of a humpback whale. We made our way over and got some great looks at Chevron, a young whale we saw for the first time last season.


We made our way back towards South Wolf because we saw some blows there and we found 4 fin whales and John mentioned it was time to start heading back and just as we turned the boat we saw a full breach about 1/2 mile away and then a light and low blow....another humpback. We made our way closer and the humpback whale, later IDed as EKG, starting slapping his pectoral flipper on the surface of the water. Below are some pictures from today with EKG.




Thanks for checking in today, tomorrow is our trip out into the open Bay to search for right whales. There is some weather we are keeping a close eye on and I will be sure to give you an update tomorrow evening. I wanted to share this photo with you, 2 beautiful female grey seals....and they were VERY vocal, also note the large male directly behind them.

Cheers,
Danielle

Atleast 3 new humpbacks...a great overcast September morning

Hey everyone, well, today is my day off but I got some great news from my co-workers, Jolinne and Nick....they has at least 4 humpbacks this morning and a number of fin whales on the Wolves Bank on the flood tide. The humpbacks have been IDed by me (and I just got confirmation from PCCS) as Arrowhead (we have seen him a number of times this season already, a male first sighted in 1976), Pike (the 2007 calf of Six), Chevron (not much is known about this young whale) and Fray (an unknown from 2009). John mentioned there were some other humpbacks they could see at a distance as well! I'm sorry I missed the trip but Jolinne gave me fluke shots (THANK YOU JOLINNE) of the 3 new humpbacks...

Pike, the 2007 calf of Six


Chevron, we also saw this whale last season



Fray, a first time sighting by Quoddy Link Marine


A lot of passengers really seem to want to whale watching on sunny days.....just so you know....the whales do NOT CARE if the sun is shining. They are here in the Bay of Fundy to feed and the overcast days are easier on your eyes, can sometimes make seeing whales at a distance much easier, and in some cases the brings their feed closer to the surface which means the whales may spend more time at the surface so don't choose a day to come whale watching bases solely on the sun, the wind and visibility plays a much more important role.

Thanks for checking in today, we are keeping a close eye on the weather for this weekend and for our North Atlantic right whale trip on Sunday.

Thanks for checking in today

Cheers,
Danielle

Second North Atlantic right whale trip!!

Hey everyone, I just wanted to let you all know that we have scheduled a 2nd special trip out into the open Bay of Fundy to search for the critically endangered North Atlantic right whale. This trip has been scheduled for October 3rd at 7:30 am. As always. it is weather dependent. For more information and to make a reservation call 1-866-688-2600.

A new humpback....about 10 fin whales....what a great day

Hello everyone, I just want to share some exciting sightings from yesterdays 10am departure. We started our trip with about 4 fin whales at the mouth of Head Harbour Passage but then John decided to take us towards the Grand Manan Channel to see if we could find some humpbacks. Our Scout Boat was out searching the offshore area and just as John was deciding to turn back around John W called from the Scout with great news.....he had 2 humpback traveling side by side! So we headed further out about another 3 miles and when we got there we found EKG traveling with a large adult that I didn't recognize. Well....this whale has since been ID'ed as Raccoon (Thank You Jooke from PCCS), an adult male humpback first sighted in 1985 and has been seen in the Bay of Fundy since 2000.

I would like you to meet Raccoon


The 2 whales we actually fluking up together and I got this amazing series of shots (EKG is closer to the boat and Raccoon is on the outside).....I hope you enjoy.


Our afternoon trip was confined closer to shore due to the wind conditions but we found about 10 finback whales between Bliss and Blacks and got some amazing close approaches.

Thanks for checking in today,

Cheers,
Danielle

HOT in St. Andrews....COOL and amazing on the Bay of Fundy

Hello everyone, well, we had another great 2 trips today....and again I have lots of photos to share :)

Our 10am trip took us off towards East Quoddy Head Light where we found a fin whale but the tide was starting to slack so we decided to take a run offshore towards the Owen Basin and see if we could find a humpback whale (our Scout Boat was out as well to help with the search). We didn't have to look too long when we got a call from John W on the Scout Boat that he found a humpback and when we got there we quickly IDed the whale as EKG, a juvenile humpback we have been watching since 2006 (was IDed then as an unknown).


EKG was staying down for anywhere from 7-12 minutes at a time so we decided to stay for one more series....and then he did a partial breach and flipper slapped a few times. Then with not mich a tail raise he was under for another 8 mintues and then.....a tail breach! And then again with the flipper slapping, we even got a double flipper slap!!


The wind picked up in the afternoon so on our 2pm trip we stayed off Blacks Harbour with 6-8 fin whales. We got some AMAZING looks, the 40-55 foot whales were surfacing so close to the boat....it was great.

Thanks for checking in,

Cheers,
Danielle

An AMAZING trip with Arrowhead

Hey there everyone.....what a trip we had this afternoon! We started off Blacks Harbour with atleast 6 fin whales and we got some great looks so John decided to run us off towards South Wolf and see if we could find a humpback whale. When we got there we found Arrowhead, an adult male that was first sighted in 1976, as an adult....which makes him most likely atleast 40 years old. We spent about 30 minutes with him.....at first he wasn't raising his tail and then we got a nice fluke shot and John said we will stick around for one more surface......and then he breached fully out of the water!! And then 3 chin breaches.....and then he proceeding to tail lob to about 5 minutes and then another full breach....and then he slapped his pectoral flipper for about 20 minutes.....AMAZING!! I have a tonne of pictures I want to share with you....I hope you enjoy


Here you can see the ventral pleats on the belly side (allow expansion during feeding).


On of the best believed theories as to why humpbacks show this kind of surface behaviour during feeding season (and when they are not trying to stun their prey) is to knock external parasites off their bodies (also to attract mates during mating season...and maybe just for fun). Here you can actually see some blood on the pectoral flipper, most likely where the banacles were....first time I have ever seen evidence like this....so amazing and THANK YOU Jolinne for pointing it out! Oh....and Arrowhead was NOT hitting the water with his pec he was hitting himself!


Thanks so much for checking in today! Hope you enjoyed the photos,

Cheers,
Danielle